


Hope

by ShayneyL



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: M/M, One-Sided Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-23 19:15:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20345293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShayneyL/pseuds/ShayneyL
Summary: Tom can't help hoping that Harry will change his mind.





	Hope

**Author's Note:**

> Writer's Month 2019, Day 21. The prompt is "hope."

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

"You got crumbs and pizza sauce all over the bed," Harry said.

Tom wiped his hands on the sheets. "So what? We have to change the bedding anyway." He grinned, remembering the things they'd done that caused all the stains on the sheets.

They were sitting on Tom's bed, naked, finishing off the last of a large pizza and a liter of root beer, when Tom made the big mistake. Harry was just so adorable, laughing, with a dab of pizza grease on his chin, Tom couldn't resist. He leaned over and kissed him, then said, "Harry, I love you."

Harry seemed shocked. "Tom..."

"You don't have to say anything," Tom said. "I just wanted you to know."

Harry didn't look happy. "I wish you hadn't said that."

"Why?"

"The rules, remember?" Harry said. 

"Rules?"

"The ones you taught me. You know...it's all good clean fun...unless someone develops serious feelings. Then the honorable thing to do is break things off."

Tom had told Harry that. When they first starting sleeping together. But Tom had never expected that he would be the one to fall in love.

"I...I was just kidding," Tom said.

Harry didn't buy it. "I'd better go." He got up, looking for his clothes.

"Wait," Tom said. "Please...stay the night? Just one more night. Please?"

Harry hesitated, then nodded. "One more night," he agreed.

They changed the sheets, took a shower, then settled in bed together for what would be the last time. Tom did everything he could to get Harry to change his mind. He used every technique he knew to drive Harry wild with passion. 

Finally Harry fell asleep in Tom's arms, exhausted. Tom watched him, his heart nearly breaking with tenderness. "Please change your mind, Harry," he whispered with desperate hope.

But when he woke up the next morning, Harry was gone.

* * *

After that, Harry was cordial but distant. No more sex, and not a lot of hanging out together, either. Until Tom started dating B'Elanna. Harry seemed to see that as proof that Tom had moved on, and suddenly they were best friends again. 

Tom hadn't moved on. He liked B'Elanna, liked her a lot, but he didn't love her. Not like he loved Harry. However, Tom wasn't the kind of person who could be alone, and the crew was pairing off, the options dwindling.

Harry dated other people, but never got serious about them. Still, Tom was jealous. Marayna, those beautiful but deadly Taresian women, Seven, Megan, Tal, Lyndsay...Tom was jealous of them all. Once, he followed Harry on the holodeck, and turned his date, Maggie, into a cow. "Just a joke," he said, but the truth was, he couldn't stand seeing Harry with someone else, even a holocharacter. 

Finally, B'Elanna got tired of Tom's spending all his time with Harry, and threatened to dump him. Tom found himself proposing. He didn't want to lose B'Elanna. And maybe this is what he needed, to really get over Harry. Commit to B'Elanna, once and for all.

It didn't work. Only Harry and Chakotay witnessed the wedding, with Captain Janeway presiding. Tom found himself hoping that Harry would speak up, confess his love, tell him not to marry B'Elanna. But Harry seemed genuinely happy at the marriage. He used up all his replicator rations to pay for a honeymoon, of sorts: decorating the _Delta Flyer_ 20th-century style, and stocking it with champagne and a lavish gourmet meal. 

And if Tom had imagined that marriage would close off his vain hopes...he was wrong. He lay in his new, larger bed each night, in his new, larger quarters, with a woman who was far too good for him in his arms...and wishing he was with Harry instead. Wondering if maybe, one day...

Nietzsche was right. The last evil in Pandora's box, hope, was the worst of them all. 


End file.
